1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a low insertion force connector assembly which has a slider to connect male and female connectors to each other with a low insertion force, and more particularly to a low insertion force connector assembly in which a cam pin protruded from the housing side wall of a male connector is positively protected from external force.
2. Description of the Related Art
A multi-pole connector has a number of terminals, and therefore it is necessary to apply a great force to connect male and female connectors to each others; that is, it is rather difficult to connect them to each other and to disconnect them from each other. In view of the foregoing, a number of kinds of low insertion force connector assemblies have been proposed in the art which have low insertion force (LIF) mechanisms.
In a typical example of those low insertion force connector assemblies, a slider is operated to perform the connection or disconnection thereof.
A conventional low insertion force connector assembly of this type has been disclosed, for instance, in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 4-319271. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the conventional low insertion force connector assembly.
The low insertion force connector assembly comprises: male connectors 111 and 112 each of which has a number of female terminal; a rectangular-frame-shaped holder 120 which accommodates the male connectors 111 and 112; a female connector 130 into which the male connectors 111 and 112 accommodated in the holder 120 are inserted; and a slider 140 which is used to achieve the connection and disconnection of the male connectors 111 and 112 and the female connector 130.
Four cam pins 121, 121, 121 and 121 are protruded from the upper and lower walls of the holder 120, and slider insertion holes 131, 131, 131 and 131 are formed in both (right and left) side walls of the female connector 130, and cam grooves 141, 141, 141 and 141 are formed in the upper and lower walls of the slider 140 in such a manner that they are engaged with the cam pins 121, 121, 121 and 121 of the holder 120, respectively.
In the low insertion force connector assembly thus constructed, the slider 140 is inserted into the female connector 130 to a predetermined position (depth), and the cam grooves 141 of the slider 140 and the cam pins 121 of the holder 120 are positioned.
When, under this condition, the slide 140 is further inserted into the female connector 130, the cam pins 121 of the holder 120 are guided by the cam grooves 141 of the slider 140, respectively, so that the male connectors 111 and 112 accommodated in the holder 120 are inserted into the female connector 130.
As is apparent from the above description, with the low insertion force connector assembly, the insertion of the slider 140 makes it possible to insert the male connectors 111 and 112 into the female connector 130 with low force.
In contrast, when it is required to disconnect the male connectors 111 and 112 from the female connector 130, the slider 140 is pulled out of the female connector 130.
The above-described conventional low insertion force connector assembly suffers from the following difficulties: The small cam pins 121 and the upper and lower walls of the hole 120 are formed as one unit by molding synthetic resin. Hence, during transportation of the manufactured low insertion force connector assembly, the cam pins 121 may be crushed or bent by external force.